305 Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in the world agricultural both as food and feed. There is no cereal on the earth which has so immense potentiality; hence, it is called as ‘Queen of cereals’. It is grown in almost all the states of India. It occupies an area of about 600 million/ha, which accounts for about 23% of the total area in the continent. It is next to rice, wheat and sorghum with regard to area and production in India. The crop is predominantly grown in Kharif (wet) season in India. The major yield reducing factors for maize cultivation in India are weeds (Pandey et al. 2001). Frequent rainfall, high temperature and higher relative humidity in Kharif season encourage germination, growth and heavy infestation of weeds in maize. Maize crop is infested with all categories of weeds including grassy, broad-leaved and sedges. The crop was infested with a wide range of weed flora, viz. Cynodon dactylon, Echinochloa colona, among the grasses; Cyperus iria, Fimbristylis miliacea among the sedges; and Ludwigia parviflora, Commelina nudiflora, Cyanotis axillaris, Phyllanthus niruri, Melochia corchorifolia among the broad-leaved weeds as major weeds out of which Echinochloa colona, Cyperus rotundus, Commenlina benghalensis and Trianthema portulacastrum dominated during early stages. Weeds emerge along with the germination of maize seeds and grow rapidly in the early stage of crop growth, causing severe crop weed competition. In case, the weeds are not brought under control at right time, there is 50-60% reduction in yield (Chidda Singh 2009). However, the most critical period for crop weed competition is first six weeks after planting of crop because initial slow growth and Indian Journal of Weed Science 50(3): 305–308, 2018 Print ISSN 0253-8040 Online ISSN 0974-8164 The experiment was carried out during Kharif (wet) season of 2014 at Agricultural Farm of Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal to find the effect of tank mix application of tembotrione and atrazine on weed growth and productivity of Kharif maize. Nine treatments comprising of herbicide tembotrione as early post-emergence at 80, 100, 120 g/ha alone and in combination with atrazine at 500 g/ha, sole application of atrazine at 1000 g/ha and weeding twice at 25 and 40 DAS and unweeded control were assigned in a randomized block design in three replication. Results revealed that the experimental field was infested with all categories of weeds including grassy, broad-leaved and sedges. Among them the most predominant weeds were Ludwigia parviflora, Cynodon doctylon, Cyperus rotundus and Fimbristylis miliacea. Overall weed infestation caused about 48% reduction in yield of maize. Combined application of tembotrione with atrazine was significantly superior to its sole application in all the doses tested. Tembotrione at 100 g/ha + stefes mero surfactant at 733 g/ha + atrazine 500 g/ha considerably reduced the weed infestation- registering lower weed density, dry weight, weed index, higher weed control efficiency and increase in values of growth and yield attributes and yield of maize, which were comparable with tembotrione at 80 g/ ha + stefes mero surfactant at 733 g/ha + atrazine 500 g/ha and tembotrione at 120 g/ha + stefes mero surfactant at 733 g/ha + atrazine 500 g/ha. Thus, early post-emergence application of tembotrione at 80-100 g/ha + stefes mero surfactant at 733 g/ha + atrazine 500 g/ha appeared to be the most promising weed management practice for higher weed control efficiency, yield, gross and net return of Kharif (wet) season maize in lateritic soil of West Bengal. DOI: 10.5958/0974-8164.2018.00066.7 Type of article: Research note Received : 7 April 2018 Revised : 27 July 2018 Accepted : 2 August 2018 Key words Atrazine Kharif maize Stefes mero surfactant Tembotrione Yield Article information ABSTRACT Tank mix application of tembotrione and atrazine to reduce weed growth and increase productivity of maize Puscal Sharma* 1 , Buddhadeb Duary and Raghavendra Singh 1 Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal 731 236 1 ICAR-National Organic Farming Research Institute, Tadong, Gangtok 737 102 *Email: raghavenupc@gmail.com